Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there! We hope you've had a good day.



Mother's Day Breakfast! Yum!! Who needs breakfast in bed? It is early tho' - bleary-eyed, and all!!

 

My breakfast "helpers"! Every day at Hervey Bay, as soon as we would eat outside, we would have a collection of ducks, water fowl, magpies and ibis gathered around the caravan.

 This morning was pack up morning, again!! So after a leisurely breakfast and a  glance through my Mother's Day present - the Souvenir Royal Wedding Edition of the Women's Weekly, we had to pack up and get ready to head for Bundaberg, our next destination.

On the way tho' we had an interesting stop at Childer's. I'm sure some of you remember, waking up to the news 11 years ago, about 15 backpackers being killed when The Palace Backpacker's Lodge burnt down. I thought we'd go and check it out. There was an interesting volunteer on duty, who has been in Childer's for a long time, and he was happy to give us the ins and outs.

• the fire was started by a mentally unstable backpacker, who blamed every bad  thing that happened to him on someone else. He wouldn't get up to go to work, and he couldn't/wouldn't pay his rent ( at the Palace), so they were throwing him out. He had evidently been down the pub during the evening of the fire, saying he was going to burn the place down to get revenge, and no one took him seriously!?! There were 84 backpackers present in the building and 69 escaped, 15 were killed, when the offender lit a fire in some garbage bins at the rear of the building. 
• Sad stories - two of those killed were sisters from Perth. So this family lost two daughters in one fell swoop! Two others were friends out of a group of three friends that came from Wales, in a town called Aberfan, that had previously had a shocking coal mining disaster, which wiped out a school full of children, in 1966. Ie. the town lost most of a generation in one fell swoop and these girls in Childer's would have been one of the new generation of precious children! One of these 3 friends survived, after they had gone to school together, uni together and decided to come to Australia together,  to back pack and work for a year before settling into their chosen careers. Many survivors have been back, with family and friends, but no one has seen or heard of this girl sice the event. I hope and pray she has found some strong support, and  friends, to fill her life afresh!
• Even while we were there, a lady came in to check out the memorial, and left after only a couple of minutes, too emotional to stay. The Volunteer said that happens all the time. You just can't tell what emotions a place like this will produce.
• The original building was heritage listed and the shell, verandah and staircase of it has been rebuilt to it's original form. Beautiful black butt polished floors and verandah and red cedar staircase (at a cost of $28,000.00). A big airy open space for the top floor now houses and art exhibition and the memorial - a simple glass, raise board with a 'collage of photos, printed on glass' for each of the 15 victims.
• There is also a large painting, portrait style, titled "Taking a Break in the Field", commissioned for the memorial and painted by Josonia Palaitis (an acclaimed portrait artist), that depicts the 15 victims of the Childer's fire. This is fantastic. More of her work can be seen at http://www.jpstudio.com.au/. As a point of interest, her father was also an artist and his name was John Mills (Mills, being my maiden name).



The 'Palace' Mamorial Building and Info Centre, at Childers

  Childer's has an interesting history also, as far as the sugar cane industry goes. There is a historical sculptural monument in the centre of town that serves as a reminder of how the Kanakas were brought into the country by white settlers, as slaves to do the hard work, in the fields of sugar cane. Convict labour was becoming scarce, so boats were sailed to Pacific Isalnds, luring (and kidnapping) men, women and children into their shocking conditions, with little or no food, little or no hygiene and terrible treatment and taking them back to Qld, many going to Childer's. Here they were sold to a variety of white settlers to do the labour they thought was too demanding for themselves, in the heat of the tropics!!

 

This verse was written by a descendant of the Kanakas, in memorium for the part they played in the history of Queensland's sugar industry

On a lighter note... Childer's has  great icecream factory. Mammino's! Original flavours, secret recipe passed down through the ages ... you know how it goes!! But the  "Golden Nugget" flavour (vanilla macadaemia nut/butterscotch chips) was particularly yummy!!

Jon is now going to heat up the lamb korma and rice (Coles' variety) in the microwave and this, with a glass of red wine, should conclude an enjoyable day.